Fixing the Doctor
by pardonmymario
Summary: An unfortunate alien encounter leaves the Doctor fighting a poison that his superior Time Lord biology isn't quite used to. Rose feels completely useless. Rose Tyler XxX 9th because he was my first Doctor
1. Chapter 1

**My first try at a Doctor Who fanfic. Wish me luck. I haven't written anything in years. Hopefully my AP English teacher didn't waste her time on me.**

**I really love the 9th doctor. I love David Tennant too, but Christopher Eccelston had me at "Run!"  
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**I'll probably write some 10th doctor fluff later.  
**

**I love Rose too. If I wasn't ramrod straight, I'd have a crush on that one. She doesn't just stand there and scream. She makes the most out of ever situation and reacts with a sort of wonder that makes you feel like she belongs in the world of DW.  
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**Hah. I think I'll shut up now.  
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**Here. A gift for you.  
**

Rose sat cross legged on the jump seat, absentmindedly twiddling the fluff sticking out a tear in the leather, and staring slightly in the direction of a pair of long, spindly, denim covered legs that were protruding from underneath the Tardis' main console.

"How long until we're airborne, captain?" she asked cheekily, propping her head up on an elbow, which she placed on her knee.

The legs on the floor moved and a long, muscled arm appeared, groping around on the grated floor.

"Oi, Rose, be a peach and hand me my sonic, yeah?" came the muffled reply.

Rose slid off the seat and winced at the cold, sharp metal on her bare feet. She located the slim, silver object only a few inches away from the Doctor's waiting hand and picked it up, slipping it into his warm palm. The hand vanished immediately and Rose could hear the telltale buzzing sound of the sonic screwdriver being activated, although the sound was slightly quieted by the console board around it.

The Doctor swore quietly enough that Rose wouldn't have heard it, had she not sat down next to the lower half of the man under the console with her knees to her chest, and she giggled. The doctor seemed not to have noticed her next to him, for he continued working.

He'd been at it for hours. They had been marooned on a seemingly uninhabited planet 200000 light years away from pluto when the Doctor's sloppy navigating led them right through the worst meteor shower the milky way had seen for thousands of years. They had been hit, of course, and the Tardis had veered away from their original destination (whatever that had been). Emergency protocol was initiated, and the Tardis was drawn to the nearest secure land mass with the strongest gravitational pull. Not bothering to scan for alien tech, the doctor determined that the planet was uninhabited based only on the barren, rocky landscape, and had promptly disappeared under the console without another word.

Rose didn't mind. She enjoyed sitting on the single jump seat, watching the Doctor work. The way his spidery legs twitched when he got electrocuted. The way he muttered to himself in different languages when he couldn't figure something out. Even the way he cursed fluently in english when something went wrong. When she wasn't watching him, Rose wandered around the Tardis, enjoying the endless amount of rooms on board. She marveled at the Time Lord science and wished that she could understand it all.

"Rose can you hand me the socket wrench?"

Rose jumped slightly and snapped out of her reverie.

"What size?" she asked, turning to the large array of tools behind her.

"The only one. Time Lords were smart enough to make every screw the same size. Saves you the trouble of matching tools to sizes and whatnot. Hurry up, now."

Rose found the wrench and slid it into his waiting hand.

"Coming along?" she asked him, playing with a strangely shaped metal piece she'd picked up from the pile.

"Oh yeah. Should be done in a- Rose will you find the-" he slid hi body out mid sentence and looked at her, and then her hands. "Oh that's the one, fantastic! How'd you know?" he slid back under.

"Oh, I've got my ways." came the reply.


	2. Chapter 2

**I've returned. School is busy. I apologize.**

**Thanks for the follows!**

**Nothing much happens here, I'm afraid. Other than a sense of foreboding that Rose doesn't actually pick up...but that's fine.**

**It will pick up next chapter.**

**Cheers.**

In the TARDIS, time was relative. On some planets, it worked differently than others and the TARDIS would always accommodate these changes; dimming the lights when the inhabitants were supposed to be asleep, waking them up when the first meal was to be served (if they stayed for more than a day or two), and always landing during the hours when said inhabitants were feeling the most hospitable. Well, usually.

But, because of this fact, time was very slippery. It was easy to lose track of. Rose could wander around the endless rooms of the TARDIS for hours without realizing, or spend the longest 20 minutes of her life waiting for The Doctor to finally tug himself out from beneath the console board, grin his goofy grin, and inform her of their next destination

20 minutes had passed and there was no sign of the lanky man emerging, and Rose was falling asleep in frustration.

She was spread over the single jump seat on her side, resting her golden curls over her arm. Every so often, her eyelids would droop before snapping back open, usually when a loud clang signified The Doctor dropping a tool, or a muffled shout pierced the silence when he was electrocuted.

As her eyelids drooped once more into a permanent resting position, The Doctor emerged, muttering, annoyed, and as flustered as a Time Lord without a working TARDIS could be.

"I don't understand it!" he cried, throwing a kick at a coral strut to his right.

Rose jerked herself into a sitting position and rubbed her face.

"What?" she asked groggily as he paced back and forth.

"Somethin's wrong with the TARDIS." He said, raking a hand through his close cropped hair.

"Doctor," she yawned. "I'm not tryin' to tell you off, but when the TARDIS does this usually, doesn' it mean we're supposed to be somewhere? To help people?"

He stopped and turned on her. Rose thought for a moment that he was going to yell at her, but instead, his face split into her favorite smile. For some reason, Rose shivered.

"Right you are, Rose!" he exclaimed, turning on his heel and heading for the door.

She scrambled off the leather jump seat to follow him, winding around the metal grates that led to the entrance of the time machine.

Of course, he was already there and reaching for the handle. And then, without a hint of formality, he threw open the TARDIS doors.

Rose gasped.


	3. Chapter 3

**I updated again because I don't want my story to be these boring 2 chapters.**

**Don't get used to it, I'll probably go back to waiting a week before I'm inspired again.**

**Little more action here.**

**I named the aliens after the zodiac sign of Cancer...because Cancer is a crab...and the aliens sort of look like crabs without claws.**

**I'm so creative.**

**Cheers**

One the rocky ground just outside of the TARDIS' shields, there was a large, flat creature. Almost crab-like in structure, with several thick legs jutting out from beneath a craggy, grey body. The whole thing looked as though it were made of the very material it lived on. Rose would have missed it, had it not been for the watery yellow eyes blinking slowly at them from a flattened area on its body, and the tips of 2 purple tongues flicking warily in and out of 2 gashes in the stone formation of its face.

"What is that?!" Rose cried in fascination and horror.

The Doctor stared at it for a moment, then looked back to the nervous blonde.

"That there is a Cancerion. I did tell you we were on the planet Cancerious, did I not?"

Rose raised an eyebrow.

"Might've left that out!" She turned her attention back to the stony creature. It hadn't moved. "Is it dangerous?"

"Well sure, if it's doin' someone else's bidding. Cancerions are a host species. Whatever entity needs a form can just make itself at home in of these." He gestured proudly at the jagged creature. "Or you can control 'em telepathically."

"That so?" Rose breathed. New life always fascinated her. She never tired of discovering species that the rest of her race could never dream of. Her chocolate colored eyes met the liquid yellow of the Cancerion's and she frowned. Something felt wrong.

It stared at her, blinking slowly, flicking its tongues in and out.

"I thought you told me there was no life here." Rose said suddenly, pulling her gaze away from the mound.

The leather clad man rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"I..well…"

Rose rolled her eyes and punched him in the arm.

"You didn't scan for alien tech! You didn't scan for anything did you!"

He rubbed his forearm and backed away from her.

"Oi! It takes away from the surprise, that's all!" he was saying. Rose grinned at him and stepped outside of the TARDIS, trying to ignore any sense of foreboding. The TARDIS could sense danger. It wouldn't send them somewhere they could be killed without warning…would it? Rose faltered as her crunching footsteps fell just short of the edge of the shields surrounding them.

The TARDIS hadn't been working lately. Not even The Doctor knew what was wrong, and that was a fact that scared Rose beyond anything else.

But the TARDIS always took them where they needed to be and always showed up when they needed it, Rose argued with herself.

"Come on Rose! Let's meet the natives!" he chuckled at some inside joke that Rose knew she would probably hear about later.

"Doctor, wait." She found herself sputtering and turning around to stand between him and the strange creature behind her. "Maybe we shouldn't go out there. It could be dangerous."

She knew how she sounded but she didn't care. This time, she would go with her gut. Unfortunately, the Doctor didn't seem to understand.

He looked down at her and grinned, grasping her shoulders.

"Good one." He chortled, and walked past outside of the shield's barriers.

Rose spun around, expecting to see the heavy looking monster atop her Doctor, crushing him with its rocky exterior. But it hadn't moved, and the Doctor was walking slowly around it, examining it just so with the intense gaze that he always wore when he was scrutinizing.

"Amazing!" he exclaimed, dropping to a squat beside the creature's face. "Look at this, Rose. He's made of rock!"

Rose smiled and pushed her previous worries into a far corner of her mind.

"I coulda told you that." She replied cockily, approaching the creature slowly.

Outside of the shield, the air tasted like iron and dry, old dust. She coughed experimentally and tried to adjust to the sensation on her tongue. She knelt on the other side of the Cancerion and watched the Doctor poke and prod gently at the solid body. He pressed his head to the ragged side and listened for a moment before knocking twice. A distant thud signified that somewhere under the shell, the thing was hollow.

"Interesting." He muttered.

Rose drew her attention toward the slightly flattened patch at the front, where the sticky yellow eyes blinked slowly in the direction of the TARDIS and the wet, purple tongues poked in and out of either side.

"Looks kind of…I'd say dead, but he's still movin his eyes and tongues so…he looks almost dead."

"Shh, Rose! You can hear 'is heart, c'mere!"

Rose reluctantly pressed her face to the rocky creature's back and listened. Inside, she could hear a distant _thumpthumpthumpthump thumpthumpthumpthump._

"What kind of a heart is that?" she whispered.

The Doctor furrowed a brow.

"Sounds like a Time Lord heart. Or hearts, but that's not possible."

Rose started. She pressed a finger to his lips.

"Listen, it's gettin louder!"

"Getting louder? That's not possible."

"Is too, listen!"

The Doctor quickly stuck his face back to the side of the Cancerion and quieted himself.

"You're right. It is getting louder. But how is that-"

"Umm, Doctor? We've got company!" Rose was on her feet and pointing out towards the horizon, where a line of Cancerion creatures was moving quickly toward them, their eight legs clacking against the stony ground. _Thumpthumpthumpthump thumpthumpthumpthump._

The Doctor was up in an instant, looking slightly nervous.

"Don't worry," he called. "We weren't hurtin him, or her. I can't tell the difference, but he's or she's fine!"

Rose turned to look at the mass behind her to see that it had turned to face its kin. It's eyes were blinking slowly, and its tongues were flitting in and out menacingly.

"Doctor!" Rose cried. The man turned to her. "Look, I know it goes against what we'er usually doin, but I really think we should run!"

He looked back at the Cancerion army for a moment before nodding at Rose.

"I think you're right on this one, Rose." He said ominously.

They turned to dash back into the protection of the TARDIS when Rose found herself unable to move. A long, slimy, purple tendril had whipped itself around her body and locked her arms at her sides.

"Doctor!" she cried as she was lifted into the air. It was no use. As she was rotated through the iron flavored air, she saw that the Doctor was entwined in a purple rope as well. She looked down frantically. The Cancerion they had been observing was glaring up at her through wet, yellow eyes, it's sticky purple tongue cascading from one mouth, twirling around her body, and ending at Rose's shoulder, where the warm tip slid sickeningly across her face and neck, leaving her covered in thick slime.

"Just don't panic!" she heard him shout.

She craned her head around to watch him as they were whirled about the air, the horde of Cancerions growing ever closer and ever larger. _Thumpthumpthumpthump thumpthumpthumpthump._

He had successfully pulled one arm free of the slimy grasp and Rose could see him struggling to get into his breast pocket which was trapped beneath violet muscle.

Rose gave a shout when the vine-like tongue whipped her upside down, and squirmed violently against the squeezing sensation.

"Got it!" came a cry from somewhere over her shoulder.

She turned to the direction of the voice and watched the Doctor grip at his sonic, kiss it with relief, and then fire a high pitched frequency toward the creature's face, which he had been swinging towards.

Unfortunately, this only seemed to make the creature angrier. Rose gasped against the pressure on her lungs as the ropey tongue tightened around her small frame. She could hear the Doctor cursing in a foreign language before shouting:

"Wrong frequency!" before giving a cry of pain.

Rose craned her neck to look at him. His face was red from lack of oxygen and she could see spidery veins of black beginning to crawl up his skin.

"Doctor!" she screamed against the force around her ribs.

"Watch out for the ends!" he choked before he stopped struggling.

"Doctor!" she cried again, adrenalin pumping through her at the site of his motionless body. "Doctor!"

A sharp pinch in her neck distracted her for a moment and she cried out, turning her face to look for the attacker. At the end of the wormy purple tongue, a sharp, grey spine had protruded and now glistened with ruby liquid. Rose could feel whatever had been in the spike creeping through her veins. It burned like icy hot and traveled quickly through her body, leaving trails of cold fire wherever it touched. Tendrils of grey and black clouded her visions and Rose went limp, the Doctor's name on her lips.


End file.
